AGFC warns it's illegal to take a fawn from wildlife setting

For picking up a fawn you can be fined up to $2,500, plus 90 days in the county jail

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A fawn checks out its surroundings Wednesday at a pen at a licensed wildlife rehabilitator’s home. Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are reminding people that it is illegal to keep a fawn.(Photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)Buy Photo

You may have stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, but that doesn't make you a deer whisperer. So, when you see a fawn, don't pick it up and think you're rescuing the animal because it's mother is nowhere to be seen. She most likely is nearby feeding and knows well where the fawn is.

That's the message from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. And locally, wildlife officer Cpl. Doug Small is backing that warning up with citations.

For picking up a fawn you can be cited under Section 901 for possession of certain wildlife in captivity. If you're found guilty, the fine is up to $2,500, plus 90 days in the county jail.

A fawn checks out its surroundings Wednesday at a pen at a licensed wildlife rehabilitator’s home. Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are reminding people that it is illegal to keep a fawn. (Photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

Katelynn Quenga, licensed wildlife rehabilitator, feeds two fawn on Wednesday. Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are reminding people that it is illegal to keep a fawn. (Photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

Katelynn Quenga, licensed wildlife rehabilitator, feeds two fawn on Wednesday. Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are reminding people that it is illegal to keep a fawn. (Photo: null)

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Small wants to get the word out to Twin Lakes Area residents because he says his office has received six calls this week from citizens wanting to snatch up fawns and "save" them. A month ago, Small was awakened in the middle of the night at his home by a citizen who'd picked up a fawn earlier in the day.

"We really need people to leave the baby deer alone," Small said. "It is perfectly natural for a doe to put her baby in a safe place while she goes off to feed. She can be gone for several hours, but she'll come back for her baby."

In addition to potentially making the fawn unsuitable for release back into the wild, taking a fawn from its mother can be bad for the mother's health as well.

"That doe will go and look for her baby, she'll just keep looking and looking," Small said. "That puts stress on her, and stress is not good for them, just like it's not good for us."

If citizens see a dead doe with a fawn nearby, they can call the Game and Fish Commission, and they'll come out and pick the fawn up.

"We'll turn the fawn over to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator," Small said. "That's the best option for potentially seeing the animal reintroduced back into the wild."

Deer aren't the only animals who suffer from our overfondness of their cute babies.

"People will keep a baby raccoon because they think it's cute, and when it's a baby, it is," Small said. "But then it grows up, it starts tearing things up and gets a nasty disposition, and suddenly people go and get rid of it. Wildlife is just that, wild."

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Katelynn Quenga, licensed wildlife rehabilitator, feeds two fawn on Wednesday. Wildlife officers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission are reminding people that it is illegal to keep a fawn.(Photo: Kevin Pieper/The Baxter Bulletin)

The problem of people picking up baby deer has become widespread enough that Small and other wildlife officers are issuing citations to people.

"I have issued several tickets for this," Small said. "We will continue to issue tickets as long as it's necessary."

But, Small would rather not issue any citations, he says.

"Please just leave the baby deer alone, that is truly what's best for them," said Small. "We really don't want to issue citations, not only because we don't want to take your money unnecessarily, but also because it means there's another fawn taken from the wild without cause."